A new year, a new set of problems...

A new year typically signifies hope for better things to come, for times of joy and happiness, looking forward to spring and happy times.  For us, sadly, the New Year has come in with a BANG, and not the good kind.


Last week, Freddie was thanked for his services at his job and terminated.  Just like that.  No reason, no warning, nothing.  In fact, he was told what a great employee he was, how much they liked him, blah, blah, blah...and then goodbye.  Needless to say this was shocking to both of us, and now that the 'dust has settled', we are dealing with the fallout of all this.  For me, I was livid and angry with his employer, as they are a small, family owned company which purports to care so much about their employees.  In fact, we had received some hand-made receiving blankets from the owner and his wife a few months ago when they learned we were expecting - and the Christmas bonus, which I'm sure everyone received, was a pleasant surprise too.  So now, for them to terminate Freddie when they know he had booked vacation in 8 weeks for the birth of our child, is absolutely heartless.  This isn't purely driven by finances, which they claim is the main reason, as they just moved to a brand new building that they had custom built for their needs - so its hard to reconcile what they say with what they do.


On the bright side, I'm happy to have Freddie at home to help me more, as I definitely need it!  It's also nice to see him get some well-deserved rest before 'Thumper' arrives, as I do tend to wake him up multiple times as I struggle to sleep.  And clearly, I'm happy to have him home and able to bond with our new baby in those first few days and weeks, as I was feeling a little guilty that he wouldn't be able to see all the 'firsts' that happen in that initial period - but I never wanted it to be like this.


Now, on the flip side, he had moved to this job from another position, so he had been there for less than a year, which means almost no severance [it's pretty minuscule].  This is clearly going to be a problem in terms of finances, with a baby on the way - there are always things to buy, despite buying used all along!  And to top it off, my  disability insurer is suspending my claim for disability and forcing me to go on our federal maternity leave, which only pays 55% of our wages, and has a weekly cap too.  So my disability pay, which covered 70% of my normal pay, will drop to 55% once 'Thumper' is born...it's not going to be easy with both of us earning 55% of our salaries.  My employer does have a top up program, but they are now determining if I would even qualify.  I really hope that I do, as I feel I gave them almost 12 years of my life, pulling 80 hour work weeks and asking for nothing in return, so I would hate to be penalized and excluded from this supplementary funding just because I got sick, which we only get for 4 months anyway, but at this time, every little bit helps!  We're good with money, so we are not flat broke and have some savings, but it's hard to know how long it will take to find replacement income, especially as we in an 'economically depressed' area, so I do fear that our savings will run out...   


I guess it just angers me that, that we both have done the 'right' things all along.  We both have university degrees, we have both worked hard at our careers, we have both sacrificed a lot for our employers, we have played by the rules and never strayed...this should have a predictable and stable outcome, but it doesn't.  It angers me that some lazy co-workers who don't do much but kiss butt all day are promoted or kept employed, while good employees are terminated.  I'm frustrated by the lack of fairness in this - and yes, I know life isn't fair.  I know that there are good times and bad, but lately it just seems like we've had more bad than good.  Things were wonderful, we got married and actually got to enjoy being DINKS and having some disposable income.  We paid off the wedding, neither one of us had student loans as we had multiple part time jobs each and took care of that prior to graduation, and we were planning out our futures.  Then, I got sick, I had to leave work and take disability leave.  A glimmer of hope came with our first pregnancy and then the heartbreak as our child slipped away.  Months of grief and heartache were compounded by Freddie's job which involved a lot of travel and took him all over the US, probably accounting for 40% of the time.  Another glimmer of stability when he changed jobs for less travel and closer to home - only to be terminated weeks before the birth of our first take-home baby, God willing.  With this baby, I thought things were getting better, but the stress and worry of an uncertain future is frustrating.  


Oddly, I'm not panicking...yet.  I pray a lot, I look for the positive, and I know we'll make it through this.  Life is cyclical and sometimes you're on top riding the wave, and at other times you're below the water gasping for air - that's where we are, again...but we have to start climbing the wave crest soon.  This isn't the way I had wanted things to be, but this wasn't our choice.  With God's help, we'll make it through - we have to!